In this catalog from a traveling exhibit of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 63 paintings and sculptures illustrate changing American attitudes toward the West—its landscape, peoples, and development—from the 1820s through the 1940s. Artists like Charles Bird King and George Catlin documented Native American cultures, while Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran painted pristine wilderness landscapes and many other artists recorded the excitement of the Gold Rush, the railroads, and westward migration. Here too are later works from the Taos Society of Artists that presented the rich Hispanic cultures and rugged terrain of the Southwest.